


Coffee Date

by Briana_Dubs



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, College AU, M/M, Other, eddie likes venom too though so its okay, similar to avengers academy except not, universtiy au, venom has a huge crush on a mess of a human being, yeah it's a coffee shop au keep scrollin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 06:13:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20523266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Briana_Dubs/pseuds/Briana_Dubs
Summary: “Hi, my name’s Eddie, what can I get for you,” the human behind the tiny barrier spoke. And then he stood there. And waited. And waited. And it took Venom a very long moment to realize they had been talking to him.Blinking about twelve times, Venom managed to remember something Riot had told them about how humans worked. “Oh, sorry, I don’t have any money.”A human next to this Eddie made a noise and Venom flinched at it. “If you don’t have any money, why the fuck did you come in here?” (Why, indeed.)





	Coffee Date

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is a bit of a mess, but I had the idea in my head for months and I needed to get it out.

“Hi, my name’s Eddie, what can I get for you,” the human behind the tiny barrier spoke. And then he stood there. And waited. And waited. And it took Venom a very long moment to realize they had been talking to him.

Blinking about twelve times, Venom managed to remember something Riot had told them about how humans worked. “Oh, sorry, I don’t have any money.”

A human next to this Eddie made a noise and Venom flinched at it. “If you don’t have any money, why the fuck did you come in here?” (Why, indeed.)

“Relax, Erica,” Eddie said to the other human. “He’s an alien, he’s probably new here.” And Venom w_as_ new here. He had only been on Earth for a little over a month. He and three others of his kind were here in an attempt to see if the planet would be suitable for them to live on and to see if the other inhabitants of the planet would be welcoming toward them. There were plenty of other alien species already living here and Venom had heard Earth had mutants, so they shouldn’t be too frightened of them. Even if no other Klyntar had ever been to Earth before.

The others were already sitting down, meeting with a few officials from the university they were living at. It was a dual experience. They lived on campus, took classes to learn about life on Earth, and had small campus jobs so they could participate in the buying and trading of goods. Though, most of the money they earned ended up going toward buying food for the four of them… So when Venom had gotten distracted by the yummy smells in this building, he hadn’t been prepared at all.

Eddie smiled at Venom, then, seeming to notice how embarrassed the poor thing was. “Hey, tell you what,” he said, before turning his head to the side and reaching one of his limbs over behind a machine. “We had a lady order this and then say we got it wrong.” He produced a cup of something that Venom could immediately smell was sweet. It had fluffy white stuff on the top and the rest of the cup was full of different swirling shades of brown. Venom had absolutely no idea what it was.

Holding the cup toward him, Eddie said, “It’s on the house.”

Venom blinked at the human. “Wha… what house?”

Eddie chuckled a little bit at him. “No, that means it’s free,” he said, “You can have this one.” Venom, startled and confused, took a moment before flinching and taking hold of the cup. He stared down at it, then back up at Eddie. The human smiled at him again and blinked one eye closed. “Take care of yourself, big guy.”

The one eye blink was confusing to Venom, but for some reason it made him feel warm and tingly inside. So he nodded and walked to the table where the others were waiting. Whatever was in the cup was cold. He moved to take a drink from it, had a little trouble with the straw, and then practically melted. Chocolate! Eddie had given him chocolate!

“Venom, what do you have?” Squall asked him, frowning as he kept drinking.

“The nice human gave me a free drink!” Venom pointed over to where Eddie was currently helping other customers.

“Why would it give _you _a free drink?” Riot, the one leading their peace mission, asked, looking unimpressed.

“I think he was worried for my nutritional intake,” Venom said, taking a moment to pop open the lid to the drink and let his tongue loop around inside to scoop up the white stuff. “He told me to take care of myself.” Riot scoffed at that and the others filled Venom in on what they would be doing for the next few days. The humans they had been here to meet were already gone. Venom had missed the whole meeting. (The others were never going to forget this.)

When they left, Venom looked back to see if he could still see Eddie. He did, and the human waved to him. Thankfully, that was one thing Venom had learned about and he knew he was supposed to wave back. Of course, as Venom waved, they walked right into the doorframe. More startled than hurt, Venom waved again and then left to follow the others. 

* * *

“Honestly, Venom, this is getting kind of pathetic.” Squall was sitting at the table with Venom again, inside the same coffee shop. Venom had been coming here almost every single day so he could see Eddie again. Most times, the human was here and Venom was able to talk to him and get a sweet treat. (He had started bringing money, though. He knew trying to get free things wasn’t something humans liked.)

Venom pouted at them. Squall kept going, though. “I mean, besides the fact that he isn’t one of us, he’s not even that appealing a human. I can smell him from here and look at him- he’s dirty looking and he doesn’t style the pili filaments on his head like the other humans.”

Venom huffed. “They call it hair, Squall.” He had been paying attention during the lessons on humans ever since the first encounter he had with Eddie. “And I think it’s nice. Eddie’s very nice. He always is nice to me when I come here.” Venom looked over at the man, taking orders for a couple of students. “I think he’s beautiful,” Venom said quietly, watching the tired looking human do his job.

Squall groaned. “Ugh. As ever, you have the worst taste,” they said.

Watching Eddie became Venom’s new pastime. Every day he could, he was coming to the café and sitting at a table where he could see the beautiful, kind human. Eddie always seemed happy to see him, always made a little joke with Venom, and every now and then would wink at him. (Venom hadn’t known what to do when he first learned what the one eyed blink meant. There was a small crisis in the Klyntar apartment that day.) Venom never knew what to order when he got to the counter, so Eddie would recommend something for him. He had asked if he liked sweet things once and when Venom had nearly screamed yes in reply, Eddie had laughed and winked at him again. Venom practically melted.

Today, Eddie had made an iced hot chocolate. When Venom asked how it could be iced and hot at the same time, Eddie explained it to him. “Normally it’s a hot chocolate, where the drink is hot and it warms you up from the inside. This is the same drink, just ice cold. But the name ‘cold chocolate’ didn’t sound as good, so they call it iced hot chocolate instead.” He rolled his shoulders after that and said, “Humans have weird names for things. I’m sure you’ll learn all about our strange sayings while you’re here.”

“I have already learned ‘on the house!’” Venom had said, proud of himself and happy to make Eddie smile again. “You taught me that.” 

* * *

“Yo Eddie, your boyfriend’s back again.” Eddie practically bounced up from his break when he heard Erica say that.

Huffing, Eddie started tying his apron back on. “Venom’s not my boyfriend.”

“Oh, okay… He sure wants to be, though,” she said, stepping out of the doorway so Eddie could get back up to the counter. “He stalks you enough.”

“I’m sure it’s not stalking,” Eddie told her, frowning. “He’s already said his species needs chemicals from things like chocolate to keep them healthy. He probably just likes all our options.”

Erica rolled her eyes as Eddie went to the counter and began taking care of customers. Three students later, the familiar hulking mass that was Venom stepped up to the front. He absolutely beamed when he got there and cooed, “Hi Eddie!” Honestly, if he had a tail, it would probably be wagging faster than they could see it. He was always so happy to see Eddie. Like a puppy that was happy to see its favorite person again at the end of the day.

It wasn’t hard to tell how much Venom liked Eddie. It was painfully obvious to Erica, but apparently not to Eddie. Then again, Eddie could be a real dumbass sometimes.

As he greeted the giant gooey black alien, Erica walked away and began making up orders. Eddie took too long talking to Venom, as usual, and then he got back to his work. Apparently, Eddie not only didn’t realize Venom liked _him_, he didn’t realize that he liked him _back_. Ugh. Idiot.

Glancing at the clock, Erica noticed that Venom was later than normal today. Eddie only had about half an hour left in his shift. Quickly, she began to set an idea into motion. When a customer ordered a sickeningly sweet drink just three minutes before Eddie was going to clock out, she purposely messed it up. “Ah, fuck,” she turned to him. “Eddie, I messed this one up.”

“What’d you do?” He asked, punching numbers on the register.

“Too many shots of chocolate, not enough caramel,” she replied. Eddie sighed and told the customer it would be just a minute longer. His relief was coming up to the register, and Erica held the half-finished drink up toward Eddie. He frowned at it and gave her a confused look.

“See if Venom wants it,” she said. “He likes the really sweet ones, right?” Eddie stammered for a moment and she sighed. “Either take it to him, drink it yourself, or throw it out. You know Annie and I like the pumpkin ones.” Finally he took hold of the cup. It didn’t have any whipped cream or anything and was only about two thirds of the way full, but if it was coming from Eddie, she knew Venom would be happy regardless. 

* * *

Venom had been licking the last of his drink. So happy, he hadn’t been paying attention to much else. The sound of a human clearing their throat made him stop mid lick and when he looked up he pulled his tongue back in with a slurp as quickly as he could.

“Eddie!” Oh, he hoped Eddie hadn’t seen that. He knew humans found their tongues off-putting and weird. He didn’t want Eddie to think he was weird.

“Uh, hey Venom.” The human fidgeted for a moment before lifting a cup in his hand. “Uhm, we messed up a drink, and uh… I thought that, well, Erica thought that uhm… That you might want it?”

Venom perked up and extended his hand, tendrils stemming out from his limb and he wrapped them around the cup. They accidentally bumped Eddie’s fingers and he all but dropped the cup. Venom managed to catch it, stretching in a blink and stopping the freefall. He looked up at Eddie’s face and smiled. Eddie whispered out a quiet little ‘sorry.’

“It is all right,” Venom said, gently pulling the cup away from him and setting it on the table. “Thank you, Eddie.”

“You’re-uh.. You’re welcome… That, um. That was really cool… Just now. What you did.” Eddie fiddled with his hands for a minute as he stumbled over his words. “Can, um, can all of you guys do that?”

“Yes,” Venom replied, “We look more similar to that, truthfully.”

“You do? Whaddoes that mean?”

“Well,” Venom began, only half noticing that Eddie was sitting down across from him at the little table, “My kind cannot survive properly in an oxygen rich environment. The inventor of your species, Stark, designed an apparatus that helps us to survive on Earth.” Venom shifted his form to bring the device in question out to where it was visible. “Without this, my kind would need a host that can breathe to survive.”

Eddie had been looking at the device as he said that, but looked up into Venom’s face as he said the last bit. “A host?” He repeated, looking curious.

Nodding, Venom said, “Yes. Humans would be most preferable, as they are easy to communicate with, but any aerobic creature would be sufficient. We can change our mass to suit our host.”

“So, like… like a parasite? Or like… like mutual? Like those birds and crocodiles?”

Venom frowned. “Not a parasite,” he said, unhappy.

Eddie noticed his mood change instantly. “Sorry,” he said quickly, “Sorry, I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to be mean.” He had reached a hand forward and put it over Venom’s. Venom jolted at the contact, but didn’t move.

“Sorry,” Eddie said, “Maybe I should think before I talk. I just… Well, you’re really cool and I’d like to know more about you, but it seems like every time I try, I just end up offending you.”

“Could never offend me, Eddie,” Venom said, looking up at him slowly. Carefully, he moved his other hand to cover Eddie’s. “You are the kindest creature I have ever met.” Eddie’s cheeks took a pink shade when he said that. “Even among my own kind I am considered a loser.”

“No!” Eddie leaned forward, both hands coming up to hold Venom’s. “You’re not a loser! You’re so cool!” Venom was staring at their hands. Eddie was touching him. Eddie was _touching_ him.

Flipping his gaze up to the human, Venom shivered as he resisted the urge to just bond with Eddie right there.

Biting his lower lip, Eddie spoke again. “Hey, uh… Do you have any plans for the rest of the day?” Venom shook his head no, still too shell-shocked to talk. “Okay.. Do you wanna hang out, then?”

Eddie hardly finished his question before Venom was answering with an excited, and loud, “Yes!” For a moment Eddie looked startled, but then he was laughing again, and Venom felt like he could melt into a puddle right there and be happy. 

* * *

Eddie had lead Venom to a green space on campus. They picked a spot under a very big tree and sat on the grass.

“Sorry I don’t have a blanket or something for us to sit on,” Eddie said, crossing his legs and leaning back against the tree.

Venom frowned. “We are planning to sleep here?”

“Huh? Oh, no, no, it’s uh… It’s like a thing if you go on picnics,” Eddie said, “I don’t really know who started it…”

“Oh.” Venom plopped himself down next to the human. “I still have so much to learn about this planet.”

“I could teach you, if you want,” Eddie offered. “Teach you all about stupid Earth stuff. Teach you sayings and phrases you probably wouldn’t learn in classes.”

“Perhaps we could… start small?”

“Sure.” Eddie smiled up at the bulky alien. “Whatever you wanna know.”

The two talked for a long time. Venom learned that Eddie was going to school for journalism and that his coworker Annie had been his girlfriend for half an Earth year, but they were no longer together. He had told him that he was working at the café to help pay rent for his apartment. Venom explained that the university had he and the others doing odd jobs around the campus to pay for their own room. Eddie had told Venom it was ‘shitty’ that the school wasn’t paying for it for them.

“It helps us to learn about capitalism,” Venom said.

“Also shitty,” Eddie huffed. “Capitalism sucks. Don’t let them convince you otherwise.”

“What is… shitty?” Venom tilted his head as he asked, looking down at Eddie.

“Oh, it’s uh… it’s a bad word for… well, for bad. It means something’s really… not up to standard? I guess? Either way, it’s not a nice word, so don’t say that when you’re talking to the campus chairmen, okay?”

“Okay, Eddie.”

They sat in silence for a little bit before Eddie pushed himself up to his feet and asked Venom if he wanted anything from the food cart they passed. When Venom said yes and offered money, Eddie refused to take it. He called it ‘his treat’ and jogged over to the man selling food. When he came back he had two identical looking sandwiches in his hands.

“It was a hot dog stand, so all he had was dogs,” Eddie said. “I got you one with everything, I hope that’s okay.” He passed the food to Venom’s hands and sat down with his own.

Now Venom was confused. He turned and twisted the food around in his hands. “Eddie, I don’t understand. This does not look like a dog… Does that mean it is made of dogs?”

The way Eddie laughed, then. Venom could listen to that sound every day. Swallowing the bite of his food, Eddie said, “God, you’re cute. No, no, it’s not made of dog and it’s not supposed to look like a dog.”

“Then why is it called a ‘hot dog’?”

“Dunno, actually,” Eddie replied, taking another bite of his food. “Jus’ is.”

Venom could have eaten the entire thing in one single bite, but he decided to follow Eddie’s lead and ate it in smaller increments. It wasn’t made of dog, but the meat wasn’t terrible. The vegetables and meats on the top were very flavorful, though. When he finished, Eddie asked him if he liked it.

“It was enjoyable,” Venom replied. “I prefer my meat fresh, but I enjoy trying all the foods this planet has to offer.”

“Hmm. Well, next time maybe we can try sushi. You’ll probably like that.”

They got up to leave a short while later. Eddie had a night class to go to, and said he wanted to change out of his work clothes. When they reached the edge of the green space, they both paused. Eddie fidgeted for a minute, looking out across the street.

Jumping forward, Eddie pushed up on his tip-toes, he pressed his lips to Venom’s jaw. Venom knew that was called a kiss and he knew humans used it as a way of expressing affection. When Eddie pulled back, he smiled up at him. “This was nice,” he said. He started crossing the street, still facing toward Venom and called out, “I’ll see you later, Venom!”

Blinking for a moment, it took Venom a moment before he finally found his voice again. “Eddie!” When the human turned around again, Venom shouted, “Was this a date!?”

“That’s up to you to decide, handsome~!”

Venom nodded. “It was a date,” he whispered to himself. “Eddie took me on a date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Venom's almost a year old and I am excited for the sequel.  
My boiz.


End file.
